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Competition between multiferroic and magnetic soliton lattice states in DyFeO3

S. E. Nikitin1,*, N. D. Andriushin2, Ø. S. Fjellvåg1,3, E. Pomjakushina1, A. A. Turrini1, S. Artyukhin4, C. W. Schneider1, and M. Mostovoy5

  • *Contact author: stanislav.nikitin@psi.ch
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Phys. Rev. Research 7, 043173 – Published 17 November, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/kwrl-x4hw

Abstract

Simultaneous breaking of time reversal and inversion symmetries in multiferroics couples ferroelectricity to magnetism and is a source of unusual physical phenomena that can be used in next-generation electronic devices. A notable example is DyFeO3, which under applied magnetic fields exhibits a giant linear magnetoelectric response and a large spontaneous electric polarization induced by coexisting orders of Fe and Dy subsystems. Here, we use high-resolution neutron diffraction to show that at zero field DyFeO3 hosts an incommensurate magnetic soliton lattice formed by spatially ordered Dy domain walls with an average domain size of 231(8) Å. The long-ranged interaction between the domain walls is mediated by magnons propagating through the Fe subsystem and is analogous to the Yukawa force in particle physics. An applied magnetic field destroys the long-ranged incommensurate order, unlocks the linear magnetoelectric response, and stabilizes the ferroelectric state. The magnetic domain walls are electrically charged and the soliton array dimerizes when both electric and magnetic fields are applied. Numerical simulations with experimental parameters suggest that the generic competition between the ferroelectric and incommensurate states can be effectively controlled by an applied electric field.

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Outline

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, 043173– Published 17 November, 2025
  • Received 30 April 2025
  • Accepted 7 October 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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